TUESDAY, June 24, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A diet rich in dairy products may slightly extend the lives of people diagnosed with colon cancer, a new study suggests. But at least one cancer doctor not involved with the study was skeptical of the research and its conclusions. The study found that people who ate the most dairy lived slightly longer and had a lower risk of dying from any cause.  "If you are a colorectal cancer patient, calcium and milk consumption may improve your survival. But do not change your diet just yet before more research is conducted," said lead researcher Peter Campbell. The report was published online June 23 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

MONDAY, June 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Blacks with colon cancer are about half as likely as whites to get a type of colon cancer that has a better chance of survival, a new study says. This may be one of the reasons why blacks are more likely to die of colon cancer than whites, the researchers said. Researchers analyzed information from 503 patients in the North Carolina Colon Cancer Study. They found that 7 percent of blacks and 14 percent of whites had cancer with a genetic marker called microsatellite instability (MSI). The study was published June 23 in the journal PLoS One.

June 24, 2014 (Reuters Health) - Combining digital mammography with a 3-D technique may improve doctors’ ability to identify breast cancers and decrease the need for additional testing, according to a new study. “We’re detecting more invasive cancers while calling fewer women back for additional imaging,” said Dr. Sarah Friedewald, the study’s lead author. “It’s a more accurate exam.” For the new study, the researchers analyzed data from 13 hospitals. They compared outcomes for women who were screened for breast cancer during the year before tomosynthesis was introduced at each center to outcomes for those screened after the technique was put in place. The study was published in JAMA, online June 24, 2014.

TUESDAY, June 24, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The benefits and harms of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening for lung cancer should be carefully considered before Medicare decides on its coverage policy, Noting that on April 30, 2014, the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) gave a vote of low confidence in the benefits versus harms of LDCT screening, Renda Soylemez Wiener, M.D., M.P.H., from Boston University School of Medicine, discussed Medicare's options for coverage. An editorial was published online June 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

June 24, 2014 - One of the deadliest forms of paediatric brain tumour, Group 3 medulloblastoma, is linked to a variety of large-scale DNA rearrangements which all have the same overall effect on specific genes located on different chromosomes. The finding, by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), both in Heidelberg, Germany, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in San Diego, USA, is published online in Nature.

TUESDAY, June 24, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Discontinuation of use of a moist smokeless tobacco product, snus (Swedish form of snuff), after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with a reduced risk of mortality, Gabriel Areflak, M.D., from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues examined whether discontinuation of snus after MI would reduce mortality using data from 675 post-MI snus quitters and 1,799 post-MI continuing snus users. Participants (aged younger than 75 years) were admitted to a coronary care unit for an MI from 2005 to 2009 and were interviewed two months after discharge. The study was published online June 23 in Circulation.

June 24, 2014 - Smartphones reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, say US scientists. More than 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial "fingerprints" end up on their screens, a study suggests. Personal possessions, such as phones, might be useful for tracking the spread of bacteria, they report in PeerJ.